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Ashok Leyland earmarks Rs 1,000 crore capex for FY26: CFO Balaji
Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland has earmarked about Rs 1,000 crore towards capital expenditure for the current financial year, a top official said on Friday.
The city-headquartered heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer with a strong financial position of Rs 4,242 crore net cash would focus on investing in products and technologies in the current financial year.
"The Capital Expenditure in FY25 we incurred was close to Rs 1,000 crore. And we will incur similar kind of capex for the coming year also (FY26)," company Chief Financial Officer K M Balaji told reporters.
To a query on the investments that would be made in the subsidiaries during the financial year, he said it would be decided based on the requirement.
"As far as investments in FY26, we will decide based on the requirements of the group companies. As of now, the requirements are visible from our Switch Mobility (EV division) and as well as in the Hinduja Leyland Finance. These are all some of the companies where we would invest and we will decide on the quantum as we progress during the financial year," he said.
Adding to his point, Ashok Leyland Managing Director and CEO Shenu Agarwal said the company reported a net debt of Rs 89 crore in the previous financial year (FY24) and now it has become net cash surplus of over Rs 4,000 crore.
"This means that we can really invest a lot of this cash in the future growth of the company. We are very clear that this future growth will come from the strengths of products and technologies that we offer to the market and also customer experience we offer to customers after the sales. So, in both these fronts we have some aggressive plans." Agarwal said.
Ashok Leyland Ltd reported a 33.44 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 1,245.92 crore in the January-March quarter, riding on robust sales and record revenue. The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 933.69 crore during the corresponding quarter of last financial year.
Commenting on the financial performance, Ashok Leyland Ltd Chairman Dheeraj Hinduja said, "Ashok Leyland achieved its highest ever Q4 and revenue, EBITDA, and PAT. This was our fourth consecutive quarter of double digit EBITDA margin. These record performances reflect the resilience of our business and trust of our customers that they have placed in us.", he said.
On the exports front, he said, the strategy of going local in overseas business complemented by new products was progressing very well.
To a query about the electric vehicle division Switch Mobility, he said, it "has a healthy volume with an order book of over 1,500 buses. We are launching new models in our bus portfolio as well. So, we are looking for a breakeven this financial year and with the restructuring we have done, that (achieving break even) is very much possible." On light commercial vehicle business, Agarwal said, "As we have already always been saying that LCV you know we see huge headroom in expanding our LCV business.
"Firstly, you know we are restricted to 2-4 tonnage vehicles of that segment which is 50 per cent of the overall LCV industry. So, first I think the plan is how we can expand our product portfolio to cover 80 per cent of our LCV segment. Lot of effort will go into our R&D to see how we can create an LCV winning product to get that 30 per cent market share.", he said.
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